Friday, January 29, 2010

A day late & ten dollars short

Yall know those people who are "a day late and a dollar short?" Well, that was me yesterday.

Recently, Charon asked me if I knew how to play the coupon game. "No. How?" was my reply. "I wouldn't have asked YOU if I knew how," was hers. "Oh.".... Well, Charon had seem some pretty cool couponing moves from a girl in her Sunday School class and was wanting in on the MAJOR money saving action. Cool couponing moves just sounds funny, huh? Or is it just me? Probably just me....

Anyway, Charon emailed a couple days later and invited me to a small little coupon class. I went, and yall, said Sunday School friend, Jennifer, is AMAZING at saving some money. I was amazed. First, look at all this stuff she got for $3.77. Yes, THREE dollars and 77 cents. And it's namebrand, good stuff... The batteries alone would have been over the amount she paid for everything... all from couponing...

My question, of course, was, "you FEED people? like you buy food and spend this little? Not just batteries, Benevia drinks (by the way what is a Benevia?) and over-the-counter medicine?" And yall, she DOES. You should have seen some of the receipts she had.

Anyway, this story isn't about Jennifer's mad couponing skills. It's about being a "DAY LATE AND TEN DOLLARS SHORT....." (hence, the title...)

The class was two weeks ago and after leaving, I couldn't wait to get my hands on some coupons and start saving some serious money on my groceries. I've never been one to cut coupons because anytime I look, it's stuff we don't use. (Hello, Benevia drinks)...."They rarely have coupons for stuff we buy"... or so I thought... But after the class, I was totally in. DW works hard and a lot of hours every week to provide for our family, and if I could save some money by researching a little and cutting coupons, I totally would. (Plus saving money means that the money saved can go toward something else...see my thinking?!?!? If DW reads that, he'll be cringing...his thinking is that money "saved" is money SAVED...as in NOT spent...ha)

Yesterday was the big day. I'd scoured the Publix ad, got all my deals worked out, gathered my coupons and made my money saving list! I was ready. Yall, I had it worked out to where I was getting Luzianne tea bags for $.26 a box, Texas toast (the frozen boxes) for $.80 cent a box and a few other things, not to mention $10.00 off my total bill.

As I was gathering up my things, I noticed the expiration date on my $10.00-off-my-total coupon... was EXPIRED. The.day.before. Yep, it was good through January 27th. DANG it... But, that wasn't stopping me. I still had all those other steals and deals...the coupon grinch, AKA the expiration date, was not robbing me of my couponing joy. No sir.

When we got to Publix, I noticed there were different deals than the ones I had prepared for. I couldn't find any of the things that I had written down as sale items and had my coupons for. About my third attempt at one of the deals returning void, it hit me... that sales ad must have been expired, too. YEP, the.day.before.... dang it.

and that was the story about the day my couponing dreams went up in smoke.

I may try again next week, but this much is certain... I will check the date on the ad BEFORE planning my trip....

Girl...I know! I started couponing in November and it took me a couple of weeks to get it. Go to www.southernsavers.comIt's fantastic!!!(Just last week, I spent $37 and saved $108- and that was for two weeks of groceries!!!)

Ohno!!! And it is so much work in the first place! I LOVE to coupon...and really enjoy iheartpublix.com as well as frugalfunandfortune.com. lots of freebies, etc. Start emailing your favorite companies...I have gotten at least 10-15 coupons for a FREE item...very cool! Once you coupon and see how much you can save, you never want to pay full price again

OH girl, that stinks!!! I would have been so upset. You were going to get some great deals. I really want to try this couponing thing, cause girls are getting some fantastic deals and I want them too!! BTW, I totally miss Publix, we don't have one here! :(

You can go to grocerygame.com and although it is a membership site that you pay per store that you use, if you commit to using it you can really save a lot. Southernsavers.com is another great site to find info. The nice thing about grocerygame is that they have it all laid out for you. Now it does take about 3 months worth of saving coupons from the newspaper to make it really work- but once you get to that point its great!

Also, if you have a harris teeter in your area- watch for triple coupons- you can save ALOT of money- quick!

Alright, after reading all about your and Charons' savings we need this girl to come teach a class at the school. Several of the girls here have been cutting cupons and are still waiting on the big savings.

Girl.. couponing is the best! Publix deals go from Wednesday to Wednesday so make sure to plan accordingly. You can do it! .. Southern Savers is a GREAT site and she gives you all the weekly Publix deals in case you forget to stop and pick up the Publix flier before shopping (which I tend to do frequently!) .. Other great sites are www.hotcouponworld.com (great Target coupons!) and www.coupons.com. Good luck!!

Southern Savers is the best! I heart Publix is awesome too. Couponing will be great, you'll see. It's just a matter of time to get the hang of it and when you do you'll catch the bug and never want to stop. I went to Publix last Saturday afternoon and bought $298 worth of groceries for $21! We had my son's birthday party so I had soda (pepsi and root beer), shrimp, fresh fruit, some frozen items, Sobe water, Hallmark cards, paper plates, Tide detergent, Cascade, etc. All stuff I use! :)

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I am blessed beyond measure. This is my blog. Its just a blog....A little place all my own to write whatever I want to. I use it most often to record our family's going-ons so that one day we can look back and "remember when."